How to Write a Press Release

Remember that post I wrote a couple weeks ago, saying that English classes should teach students how to write things they will actually be writing as adults? This week, I've decided to not be a hypocrite. I usually talk about how to write fiction, but today, I'm going to discuss how to write a press release.

Let us begin with cliche: What is a press release?

Well, inquiring mind, a press release is when an organization -- whether that is a company, club, church group or something else that starts with a "c" -- sends a letter to the media. These days, a press release is also something you could send to your customer base or following. It is meant to disclose whatever has been happening lately in a way that draws attention to your group. Usually, it's happy news, but I suppose tragic news could also warrant a press release.

It is important to note that a news outlet will not publish or use your press release if the news is not interesting or important enough. Saying you got a company pet is not newsworthy, but it would be if said pet works as an on-call seeing eye dog for whoever visits your store. (Can seeing eye dogs switch people, or are they trained for specific people? Unsure.)

News outlets are looking for the following, called "news values": timeliness (last month's news? Forget it), impact (how many people does this affect, and by how much?), prominence (I lied earlier. If Facebook got a company pet, that would make the news), proximity (choose a news outlet in your area, please), interest (how bizarre or heartwarming or sad, basically. The emotion factor), and conflict (who cares if you sold a book? ... Until it gets banned, that is).

When you write a press release, keep these factors in mind. If your news does not fit these categories, I honestly wouldn't even bother. It's important to know your audience, though; a recent press release I had to write said the company I work for had gained membership in an international organization in its field. The local news station couldn't care less, but our customers do care, and they are the ones I sent the release to. It tells customers that we are a bit more legit.

Using that press release as an example, here's how I covered those news values. Timeliness got covered by a photo of a store manager hanging the sign saying it. That makes it seem current. I also used the present tense when talking about the photo. In actuality, the membership started back in January. Impact happened when I said it would help us to better serve our customers and improve the quality of our products. Remember, since the customers were my audience, the question was "How does this impact me?", not the vague, "Who does this impact?" Prominence came in when I labelled the organization as an international one. For some reason, "international" means "important." I also said this was the go-to organization for the industry. I introduced interest by (I hope) going through the organization's code of ethics and giving recent examples (continuing to make it timely!) of how we already uphold it. There were Google reviews to add interest, too, and change up the voice. A press release like this isn't really emotional, but I probably could have worked on this aspect a bit more. As for conflict, there wasn't any. I mean, was I supposed to pretend the organization hadn't wanted us and we had fought our way in? Lesson: You don't need to address all the news values, just all the ones you possibly can.

There is no set length for a press release. I'd say write your news and stop when you've said it all, at a max of two pages. One is better. Don't keep writing for the joy of it, because someone has to read that and all they want is the news, not your life story. They want you to get to the point, answer the who, what, when, where, why and how, and be done.

Please remember to answer those questions. If you leave some of that out, you're missing a crucial part of your story.

Finally, include your contact information and any photos you think would support the story. When I worked at the Press-Tribune, we regularly had people email in a press release (you can mail, email, whatever you want) and then call to make sure we noticed it. This is good practice for dealing with a news outlet.

Best of luck! Google a few examples and you're ready to go.